Releases

A. Swayze & The Ghosts - 12" Vinyl in stores March 29

29 March 2019

A.Swayze & the Ghosts is an exhilarating new garage-punk band from Hobart, the capital of Tasmania,
the island located just below Australia. They are comprised of lead singer Andrew Swayze, alongside
high school friends Hendrik Wipprecht (guitar), Zackary Blain (drums) and Ben Simms (bass).
They release their debut 12” on March 29th via Rough Trade Records. The lead single “Suddenly” is
backed with the epic, 10 minute jam-fest known as “Reciprocation”.
Tasmania is known around the world as The Island of Inspiration and it’s no secret that the albums that
have inspired A.Swayze & the Ghosts came from classic artists such as Iggy & The Stooges, Television,
Fugazi, The Ramones and Australia’s kings of punk, The Saints.
Elements of these masterful artists from an early era can be found in the band’s DNA and have allowed
them to grow into their own world, to create their own scene, on an island that also has much deep and
meaningful history with potential to have some new rock n’ roll history too.
Within the driving impact of “Suddenly”, A.Swayze & the Ghosts is unleashed in all its bombastic,
garage-punk glory. Written by front man, Andrew Swayze and his wife Olivia, “Suddenly” addresses the
pressing issue of gender inequality, using Olivia’s own anecdotes and experiences of day to day
harassment, choosing “the perspective of a woman for a more sincere and potent viewpoint of the
subject matter”.

“Cross razor-edged guitars and thunderous rhythmic backing, A. Swayze & the Ghosts pummel into your
eardrums with barely-checked ferocity. Immediately swept up in this tide, you’ll quickly realise that
Swayze is singing from a woman’s perspective, singing about the gender imbalances still rife in modern
society. Even without the battering-ram action of A. Swayze & the Ghosts backing, the anecdotes would
be disturbing, but set aloft on the aerodynamic guitars the inequality will batter your psyche, energising
you to stand up in this fight.” – The 405

“I’m overpowered by this frenetic, fuzzy delight. This is the kind of band that mum wouldn’t let you join.” –
Dave Ruby Howe, Triple J Unearthed

“Providing an immediate and incessant sound from the outset, sparking guitars relish under the rich
production, exploring the already spritely atmosphere around Swayze’s bouncing yelp, unconstrained and
punching. Swayze writhes as he murmurs “you told me to stay / but I wanted to go” in harmonic unison,
the voices simmering with liberation, bold and unblinking in their seriousness. ‘Suddenly’ is an instant and
incendiary introduction to a tempestuous and perhaps essential new group.” – So Young Magazine

It’s 2015 and you’re in their capital city Hobart. It’s freezing because the Winter sun tends to forget about
you too, employment rates are nearly as low as the temperatures and you sit in a bar and slowly gorge
yourself warm with booze and burgers as a sick sign of camaraderie to your State having the highest
obesity rates in Oz. There’s no place like home.
Sound familiar? Me neither.
But to lead singer Andrew Swayze, this mirage is the defeated, “no-hope” horizon that gave birth to A.
Swayze & the Ghosts and spat out their explosive sound. They say desperation breeds genius but often,
desperation just breeds further desperation, and in an effort to cope with this The Ghosts headed down
the yellow brick road of self destruction, “writing songs like Suddenly, in our shitty house share and killing
ourselves at gigs in front of 30-40 people”, they gave new meaning to the phrase ‘line check.’
Their absolute favourite to play live, the song’s uncut rigidity mimics the spikey, enclosed landscape of
everyday repression. From the pungent and obvious ‘you say I’m weak ‘cos I don’t have a dick’ to the
more subtle ‘you told me to stay / but I wanted to go’. There it is, that complexity, that simplistic,
seemingly innocent exchange which cloaks a hidden agenda and subtracts power. The familiar theme of
a loss of control continues along with the stopping and starting of the instrumental, brought together only
by Andrew’s uplifting bark: ‘I am with you / Are you with me?’ Powerlessness and destruction are instead
projected from the outside in, from our society and surroundings rather than self-inflicted.